Even when we think we’re not expressing something, relics of those emotions are still there.”

The results come from a study in which students were shown photos and asked to judge whether they were ‘rich’ or ‘poor’.

Interestingly, though, people could only judge someone’s social class if they posed with a neutral face.

The effect vanished if people smiled.

Dr Rule said:

“What we’re seeing is students who are just 18-22 years old have already accumulated enough life experience that it has visibly changed and shaped their face to the point you can tell what their socio-economic standing or social class is.

There are neurons in the brain that specialize in facial recognition.

The face is the first thing you notice when you look at somebody.

We see faces in clouds, we see faces in toast.

We are sort of hardwired to look for face-like stimuli.

And this is something people pick up very quickly.

And they are consistent, which is what makes it statistically significant.”

Ms Bjornsdottir concluded:

“People are not really aware of what cues they are using when they make these judgments.

If you ask them why, they don’t know.

They are not aware of how they are doing this.

People talk about the cycle of poverty, and this is potentially one contributor to that.”

[For British people equating money with class used to be, well, very working class. Now Brits, like Americans, assume little difference.]

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